Leonardo Music Journal

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Leonardo Music Journal
Call for Proposals
We invite proposals for the next two issues of the Leonardo Music Journal.
The guidelines below are intended to create an identifiable focus for each
issue, but should not be regarded as a limited set of assigned topics or as
specific questions to be answered. They should serve instead as
springboards for personally relevant writing, and are open to individual
interpretation. Please contact the Leonardo Music Journal or Nicolas
Collins, Editor-in-Chief, directly with proposals, suggestions or
questions , at: tallmancollins@compuserve.com.
LMJ 9: Power and Responsibility: Politics, Identity and Technology in Music
In our contemporary saviness, we no longer think of music as the creation
of solitary genius scribbling in a garret. We are far more likely to see
it as a collaboration between individual ambitions and socio-economic
constraints and inspirations. Composers themselves are likely to parse the
responsibility for musical decisions out among numerous parties: a
composer, pseudo-autonomous hardware and software, improvising musicians,
variables of architectural space, or the interaction of an audience.
These issues converge on questions of identity and power politics: is the
orchestra necessarily fascistic? Does electronic technology have an
inherent sexual identity (is it all "boy's toys")? What is the difference
between a Japanese composer writing for the piano and a German composer
writing for the koto? Do composers in "young countries" (Australia)
necessarily have less cultural baggage than those in older ones (Italy)?
Are the virtues of democracy the same as those of music? And how do we
deal with Mr. Gates?
In this issue of Leonardo, we want to examine how contemporary composers
define their role within a network of shared responsibility. How do you
allocate power? How do you justify its use? How do you define your
musical and social communities, and how do you position yourself within
them?
Deadlines:
December 1, 1998: rough proposals, queries
January 15, 1999: submission of finished article
April 1: article returned with reviewer comments for revision
May 15: revised version due
LMJ 10: Southern Cones -- Music in Africa and South America
For the end of the millennium we want to shift the focus away from
technological music's traditionally Eurocentric domain and concentrate
instead on contributions to modern music coming out of Africa and South
America. Access and attitudes towards technology shift radically with
geography, causing both predictable and unexpected effects on the arts.
We encourage writing by residents of these continents who work with
technology and music (composers of "serious" and "pop" music, recording
engineers and producers, studio musicians, concert promoters,
musicologists, etc.), as well as persons of any citizenship for whom
Southern cultures have been musically significant.